Definitely. One of the finest games of the year. One of the best strategy games in a long time too. If you have any familiarity with the classic Xcom, then buy it flat out. Worthy of calling itself Xcom properly.

I'm an old school XCOM fan, 1994 was a great year for PC games; Jagged Alliance, TIE fighter, MOO. Thanks to steam i was still playing the first xcom.

This new XCOM game is pretty fulfilling for nostalgia and in its own right. I'm good with the "streamlined" concept. The game still presents more meaningful decisions than you can shake a stick at. The combat has a good mix of tension (sectopods) and fun (shotgunning bads in the face). Combat is also pretty deep, learning how to flank took a few hours.

Like a previous poster mentioned, the pacing of enemies seems off. Meeting a chrysalid in month 2 was a bit of a shock, then mutons in month 3. Snakemen would have been a nice in-between. Cyberdiscs and floaters i saw too briefly.

I'm an old school XCOM fan, 1994 was a great year for PC games; Jagged Alliance, TIE fighter, MOO. Thanks to steam i was still playing the first xcom.

This new XCOM game is pretty fulfilling for nostalgia and in its own right. I'm good with the "streamlined" concept. The game still presents more meaningful decisions than you can shake a stick at. The combat has a good mix of tension (sectopods) and fun (shotgunning bads in the face). Combat is also pretty deep, learning how to flank took a few hours.

Like a previous poster mentioned, the pacing of enemies seems off. Meeting a chrysalid in month 2 was a bit of a shock, then mutons in month 3. Snakemen would have been a nice in-between. Cyberdiscs and floaters i saw too briefly.

Now im trying to figure out what the 2gb patch did today.

All I saw:

Fixed bugs I was...using (Sniping through walls), and they added in 'heroes' which (once enabled) disable the ability to earn achievements.

Game is available in the EU now. Got about an hour of gameplay in before work. Can't wait to play more. But yes, I'll have to agree that it's a bit too simplistic for what I want - but that's something I've known for some time. Hopefully Firaxis hasn't gone back on their statement that the game will be moddable, and we'll see someone mod in some of the complexity of the old classic.

Also, I fired a rocket through the container I was hiding behind. X-COM cares not for your flippant laws of physics!

Got on last night and its just a great game. just so playable, played for 7 hours straight before i had to get a few hours sleep before work.

they've managed to take what i deem to be the essense of the Original, alien invasion, permadeath, up against the odds and stripped away all the tedium and monotomy of inventory, of micromanagment,clunky time unit movements of 40 minute bug hunts for 1 sectoid huddled in a corrner, all the way's to cheese your way to victory, they've added in meaningful and impactful choices, the on ground part is so much more tactics oriented then the original, losing soldiers is much more impactful and i feel up against it.

Theres a few niggles but thats just animations dont cope with the poking head out of corner and firing sometimes and i think satelites seem to be a bit overpowered, they might have gone a little too far steamlining the inventory to just one item, but it still is good because you have to choose and cant just load up with everything.

It ran really well on my PS3 yesterday, cant wait to try the PC unlock tonight, think my weekend is doing to be absorbed by this.

Hmmm not sure about that. In the original game, crouching gave you a percentile chance against being hit IIRC. If you crouched in front of an object like a fence, the object would protect you (usually once, then that object would be destroyed, leaving you unprotected). So in a way, there was a sort of cover mechanic, or at least I used to always play like that.

It was pretty complex. The game was pseudo-3D so objects had height as well (and unfortunately, your soldiers were the highest :d), also various objects could block view or blasts in some way ( so for example being behind tree in forrest map gave quite some cover ).
Also the way accuracy worked was quite novel at the time - based on your chance your shot had random deviation both vertical and horizontal.

The one reason why i don't want to play Ironman mode is the panic in this game.
It's absolutely retarded how my 2 colonel assaults are standing right next to an escort, then a thin man poisons my heavy - one assault panicks, shoots the other assault in the face, that assault panicks and shoots the ESCORT form 2 tiles away.

I mean, okay, panic should work on rookies, but those colonels were killing hundreds of those thin men in the space of 50 missions - why the hell would they panic?

And even if they panicked - why the fuck would they shoot their squadmates RIGHT IN THE FACE?

Also the way accuracy worked was quite novel at the time - based on your chance your shot had random deviation both vertical and horizontal.

Indeed. It happened to me now and then in the original XCOM that my soldier would shoot and miss his target, only to hit another alien standing behind it. Has anyone seen something like this happen in Enemy Unknown?

Originally Posted by Strah

And even if they panicked - why the fuck would they shoot their squadmates RIGHT IN THE FACE?

Hey man, you never really know how you would react in such a situation!

My Gaming Setup | WoW Paladin (retired)"This is not a dress. This is a sacred robe of the ancient psychedelic monks."

Indeed. It happened to me now and then in the original XCOM that my soldier would shoot and miss his target, only to hit another alien standing behind it. Has anyone seen something like this happen in Enemy Unknown?

Nope. They can go past their targets and hit&destroy pretty much any teraain feature, but apart from AoE weapons that goe haywire they can't hit other people. Or it is extremely rare. I shot my own guy with a rocket once after it flew pretty much in a 90 degree angle away from the intended direction, and once a Sectopod took down both of its drones with a missile barrage. The guy it was targeting was hiding behinf the corner of a large UFO, so ballistic trajectory made the missiles hit the roof above him, and the drones were howering within the blast range.
But even if I'm flanking three aliens that sit in a nice row and fire at them with an alloy cannon missing the first, I do not hit the second or 3rd... but the wall straight behind them gets blown to hell.

Originally Posted by Strah

And even if they panicked - why the fuck would they shoot their squadmates RIGHT IN THE FACE?

Panic can do funny things. I once (albeit I must admit I was dead tired) saw a bush from the corner of my eye in the dark as a looming, black shape. I turned to look at it and went "Oh, it was just a bush." I then turned back and after taking two more steps it suddenly set in; "OH SHIT, IT'S A BUSH!". I then turned around and emptied an entire clip into it in blind panic, waking up everybody and putting the camp on full alert and only then realized "Oh fuck, what the hell am I doing?".

My squad told me to skip the fire watch and get an extra hour of uninterrupted shuteye.

You know what I miss. Blaster launchers and blaster bombs. Man, I would love enemy base missions just becasue you'd always have a group of high ranking aliens in the 2nd floor area of main control room of the base. Launch a mini nuke up there and fry all of those fuckers at once.

Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.
Sovereign
Mass Effect

Panic can do funny things. I once (albeit I must admit I was dead tired) saw a bush from the corner of my eye in the dark as a looming, black shape. I turned to look at it and went "Oh, it was just a bush." I then turned back and after taking two more steps it suddenly set in; "OH SHIT, IT'S A BUSH!". I then turned around and emptied an entire clip into it in blind panic, waking up everybody and putting the camp on full alert and only then realized "Oh fuck, what the hell am I doing?".

My squad told me to skip the fire watch and get an extra hour of uninterrupted shuteye.

Well i know friendly fire happens due to panic - seeing and shooting all shadows, etc, but in this situation my squad is literally standing 2 tiles within each other, in broad daylight and they've all got a LOT of combat experience.

I believe Panic is gauged by your Will score. I would try and get the Perk from the Officer Training. If you get it earlier in the game, it makes future rookies pretty hardened vets once they level up.

So far i've been lucky and anytime one of my soldiers panic they have only shot at the enemy. Actually killed some from panic which was awesome.

I believe Panic is gauged by your Will score. I would try and get the Perk from the Officer Training. If you get it earlier in the game, it makes future rookies pretty hardened vets once they level up.

So far i've been lucky and anytime one of my soldiers panic they have only shot at the enemy. Actually killed some from panic which was awesome.